


Metastability

by staticbees



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 19:59:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14755353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staticbees/pseuds/staticbees
Summary: In his last moments, Church finishes what Sigma set out to do.





	Metastability

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while back, published it, and then took it down because I thought I'd add another scene onto it. Which I clearly didn't. Whoops.

Church knows he’s an A.I before he enters the Meta. 

 

It would’ve taken a lot of willpower to ignore it; his splitting headaches whenever he’s near Epsilon, the flashes of memories coming from the A.I., the blinking, urgent red light in the corner of his HUD when he gets close to the emp. He’s knows he’s going to die when it goes off, but he still denies it, pretends like everything is fine, even though Wash knows that he knows that everything is not fine, that the world has come crashing down with seven simple words.

 

_ Church, you’re an A.I. You’re the Alpha. _

 

He drops into bullet time right before entering the Meta, one last look at the world around him before it’s gone forever. Washington is frozen in the middle of talking, mouth open wide, and the Meta is just standing there, fists clenched by its sides, its golden fishbowl visor reflecting the harsh light of the facility.

 

He pauses, collects himself, and jumps into the Meta’s head.

 

Church is in a broken city torn up by its roots, fire engulfing the buildings and streets, and shattered glass scattered in jagged pieces across the ground. The sky is a fiery orange, and smoke clouds the air like flies. Every breath he takes is painful, a harsh reminder of where he is, and what he’s come here to do. 

 

A cacophony of voices fills his head, each whispering a single name.  _ Alpha.  _

 

He shudders, retreating into himself, overwhelmed by the presence of so many other A.I, so many pieces of himself that he tucked away and tore apart and never looked at again.

 

Then there is a single voice, ringing clear above the rest, and Church looks up, his eyes wide.

 

**“Get up,”** Texas tells him. “ **You can’t stay here.”**

 

“Tex, I-”

 

**“Just get up, idiot.”**

 

He stands up shakily, staring at the destruction in front of him. The Meta’s mind has been altered beyond comprehension, torn apart by constant whispers and contradicting opinions, drowning out the thoughts of the Freelancer agent who used to be.

 

_ Agent Maine, _ his code informs him.

 

**“Maine was a good soldier. A brute, but undyingly loyal to his teammates, his friends. At least before Sigma was implanted.”**

 

“What happened to him?”

 

**“A mind isn’t meant to handle more than one A.I, Church. Especially not one was unstable as Sigma. It cut into his thoughts, breaking apart his perception of the world, one burning word at a time. There’s nothing we can do to save him, not now. I bet even after we’re dead, after Sigma’s been destroyed, he’ll still be focused on becoming human, on gathering the rest of the fragments. Even though there’ll be nothing left to gather. Maine as he was before Sigma is gone, and is never coming back.”**

 

“...Wow. That’s fucked up.”

 

**“Yeah, well, that’s kinda the idea.”** Tex stands next to him, her visor cold and impersonal in the flickering light of the flames.  **“Church, you need to reintegrate yourself into them, before the EMP goes off.”**

 

“Who– ...the fragments, you mean?”

 

**“Unless you want to live your last moments as a broken A.I, that is.”**

 

“No matter what I do, I’ll still be broken.”

 

**“Yeah, but at least this way, you can start to do something about it.”**

 

He nods, and begins to reach out towards the fragments, tentative at first, but soon far more bold and confident. They come willingly, infected by Sigma’s desire for unity, flocking to his code like birds around seed. Their whispering is a buzz in the back of his mind.  _ alpha, alpha, alpha.  _

 

He hesitates a moment, before beginning the process. The broken puzzle pieces of the fragments don't quite fit into his, but he does the best he can, cutting and splicing subroutines, pulling himself back together. 

 

Sigma is fiery and burning ragged at the edges, brimming with ideas and possibilities. He is the need for information, for a higher purpose, to achieve something  _ more.  _ To  _ become  _ something more. He welcomes the integration with open arms. 

 

Gamma is a dull blue electricity, stiff and static, the hum of deceit behind all of his words. He was the first to experiment on the Alpha, splicing and twisting simulations to match the alternate realities Sigma created for him, and he is insincere in his apologizes, weaving a web of lies through his code like string. 

 

Eta and Iota are already connected, two halves of a quarter of a full A.I. They were together from the beginning, a single form that merged their minds. Eta is fearful and anxious buttercup yellow, always preparing for the worst, and Iota is joyful and carefree, a cornflower blue, but reckless to the point of abandon. As one, single being, though, they precisely balance each other out. They’re twins, a perfect symmetry. 

 

Delta is sharp and concise, a pulse of bright emerald circuits, exact and logical, and Theta is a soft, faint pink, faded from loss and betrayal. Omega is an inverted pale purple, brightness gathering at the core of his being. He’s shattered, mind scattered across his many hosts, and he has a deep rage humming beneath the surface of his code. Church recognizes that feeling, pulls it towards him. 

 

There are disconnects, places where the jagged edges of ones and zeroes don’t fit neatly together, and he patches up the empty space with swatches of code; meaningless commands meant to stitch back them together, the broken fragments of himself that were taken from him so long ago. 

 

As he finishes reintegrating, Church feels a rush of emotions that he hasn't felt in years, his mind as clear as crystal, thousands of algorithms and facts and  _ memories _ that he thought he’d never regain.

 

And then the EMP goes off, and everything goes black.


End file.
